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A short burst of excitement
Are aliens trying to communicate via a ‘repeating fast radio burst’ from outer space? SCIENCE AND SOCIETY investigate.
CHIME telescope in Canada which was used to detect the signals

THE media was abuzz recently after news broke that an international collaboration using a large radio telescope (four gigantic cylinders in rural British Columbia, Canada) had found evidence of a “repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source.”

In other words, an extremely powerful pulse of radiation from a fixed place in the night sky: not just once, but repeatedly.

The short bursts of powerful radiation lasted just a few milliseconds. Such bursts have been seen before, but only as one-off events. The bursts repeated, but not at regular intervals, and this repetition has led some to wonder: could these be alien signals?

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